Zodiac is my favorite Fincher film by a wide margin. I also think it’s the movie where he first became a truly great artist. But I think it must be seen several times to be fully understood and appreciated. It’s more a meditation on time, obsession and identity than it is a “serial killer thriller.”

Chabrol’s career is interesting in that it goes through many phases. The masterpiece of his early career is Les Bonnes Femmes (1960). The absolute high point of his career is the late 60s and early 70s. He made so many great thrillers starring his wife Stephane Audran around this time. Definitely check out Le Boucher and La Rupture (both from 1970). From his later career, the best film is probably La Ceremonie (1995).

I agree with you that Zodiac is much more than a serial killer thriller,the center character is Jack,and a man’s obsession interests me much more than just the result of a cold case.The thing I did not like it is the first one-hour and half is a little bit too long as the set-up for me.Jack only becomes really obsessive in the last hour,and that’s the best part for me.

I really liked offsides, how did I do on my paper on that by the way? hahah, So I signed and became a member of the facets rental thing, and I’m start with the whole kung-fu/samurai/ninja and everything included in that genre first, I’m going to stay away from French new wave since in summer school will be watching it I guess. I also even looked at the google walk through of the facet place, and it makes my dvd shelf collection look like a grain of sand compared to them hahaha, I honestly think I am set with movies for the time being, thanks Mr.Smith for the info on facets!

Your Offside paper was excellent – and impressively thorough for an extra credit assignment! I hope you’ll get to see This Is Not a Film, the latest movie by the same director Jafar Panahi. He made it clandestinely while under house arrest and then had it smuggled out of Iran on a USB drive hidden inside of a birthday cake.

Facets has an incredible Asian cinema selection. Let me know if you see anything good!

psycho, slumber party massacre, 400 blows, the good the bad and the ugly…THIS IS GONNA BE AWSOME, cant wait!..gonna sign up once i get my next pay check, i’m also trying to recruit more soldiers to get there mind blown with the french new wave hahaha

That’s a tough question because his career has gone through so many different phases. From the early years (’60 – ’67) my favorites are Contempt, Pierrot le Fou and Weekend. My least favorite from this period is Made in USA. From the Marxist/wilderness years (’68-’79), my favorite is probably Numero Deux although this is by far my least favorite Godard period. From the later years, my favorites are Passion, Nouvelle Vague, Histoire(s) du Cinema and Film Socialisme. In recent years, I’ve tended to prefer his video work to his film work, the reasons for which are outlined in my Film Socialisme review: https://whitecitycinema.com/2011/06/16/now-playing-film-socialisme-2/